ASOS to Ban the Sale of All Mohair, Silk, Cashmere, and Feathers
ASOS is the latest major company to drop mohair, following PETA’s exposé of cruelty in South Africa’s mohair industry. The global online fashion retailer – which sells more than 850 labels as well as its own-brand clothing and accessories – has also gone one step further and confirmed that it’ll ban cashmere, silk, down, and feathers across its entire platform by the end of January 2019.
Each year, the mohair, cashmere, down, and silk industries exploit countless goats, geese, ducks, and silkworms, causing these sentient beings unnecessary pain and suffering. PETA’s exposé revealed that angora goats reared for the mohair industry endured mutilation of their sensitive ears with tattoo pliers, which left them screaming in pain. Shearers – who are paid by volume, not by the hour – worked quickly and carelessly, leaving the animals cut and bleeding. Workers roughly stitched them up without giving them any pain relief.
Cashmere goats, who are kept by the millions in China and Mongolia, need their coats to protect them from the bitter cold. But they’re frequently shorn in midwinter to meet market demand, and many die from exposure as a result. Young goats with perceived “defects” in their coats are slaughtered, and native wildlife is often persecuted and killed to protect the industry.
Most down comes from birds who are victims of the meat and foie gras industries. They’re often pinned to the ground by workers who violently yank fistfuls of feathers out of their delicate skin as they cry out in pain. In the production of silk, silkworms are boiled or gassed alive in their cocoons. Approximately 6,600 of them are killed to make every kilogram of silk.
Not only are today’s luxurious vegan fabrics indistinguishable from animal-based fibres, they’re often also higher-performing and less harmful to the environment.
What You Can Do
Although over 160 brands have committed to dropping mohair in the wake of PETA’s exposé, Free People continues to sell products made from the cruelly obtained material. Please contact the company now and ask it to do the right thing for goats.
